While Korea has many beautiful colored tattoos, there are just as many immaculately-done black and gray tattoos that deserve more love. Some people may think that just black and gray limits creative liberty, but these nine artists show that you can do more than what you can ever imagine with just two colors. If you’ve been wanting to get a black and gray tattoo done in Korea, you’ve come to the right place.
Hugo K
First on this list is Hugo K. He lived in America when he was young so he’s fluent in English. Impressive language abilities aside, his style is iconic for his cute, round characters adorned with stars, moons, and hearts. People often go to him for his cats and stylistic renditions of beloved Studio Ghibli characters. He has a private studio in Seoul with his wife, Greem, who is also an excellent blackwork tattoo artist. I will talk about her in a future post about blackwork tattoo artists in Seoul.
Now Tattooer
Next is Now, who is stationed in Seoul. Her work can be characterized by the way she intricately etches each line to subtly shade the subject as if it were a medieval drawing. The delicate shading is contrasted by negative-space or all-black stars that decorate the subject. The way she draws animals really makes them stand out stylistically, especially her star-adorned snakes, fish, and whales. Not only that, but she can also make really cool tattoos that look like sculptures.
Arang Eleven
Arang’s style uses bold and elaborate, dotted shading, taking advantage of negative space for high contrast to create a more dramatic look. Her subjects are mostly animals, flowers, and patterns, but my personal favorites are her tigers. Her linework is very clean and precise, so when you look up close, you can’t see even the slightest tremble out of place. You can tell by the way she shapes each tattoo to fit her client perfectly that the design was undoubtedly made for them.
Saki
Saki has a unique style that is reminiscent of Chinese porcelain jars. Actually, many of their tattoos are done in blue ink, much like the art carefully painted on Chinese porcelain jars. However, this list is about black and gray tattoos, so I will only be showing those in this post. Saki’s designs have amazingly precise symmetry with crisp, even lines, which one can imagine is very difficult to achieve on an uneven canvas. They work at Kodzunak Tattoo Studio, which hosts twelve other artists.
Taena
Taena is another artist who does not exclusively do black and gray tattooing, but she has so many gorgeous black and gray pieces that I absolutely had to include on this list. Her work is elaborate with bold shading throughout her pieces. Her subject matters often include snakes, flowers, and swords. Each scale and petal is carefully shaded, and the way she uses negative space for highlights creates a high-contrast look that really stands out.
Sou
The only thing that’s written in Sou’s bio is “soft x flow,” which pretty much summarizes her tattooing style. She often tattoos flowers, especially peonies, that flow down the body like a stream. She also sometimes decorates these flowers with skulls or snakes, the latter being a popular motif in the Korean tattoo scene. Her shading is much softer compared to the artists mentioned earlier.
Masa Island
Masa’s tattoos have light shading and are very elaborate. As you can see, each scale and feather is carefully drawn on. The softness and beautiful flowers are a nice contrast to the fierce presence of the animals. I think they balance each other very well and make the pieces particularly captivating. Masa does mostly animals, but can also do flora and crisp fine-line geometric patterns.
Baekyeon
Baekyeon’s work can be characterized by large, dynamic brushstrokes, as if it were a painting. Though you can’t exactly paint on a tattoo with a brush, Baekyeon does a great job imitating the swooping and trailing off of a paintbrush dipped in ink. His shading makes his tattoos appear as though there are varying distributions of ink in a very natural way. Sometimes, he brings his tattoos to life with a subtle pop of color.
E.O.
E.O. is another black and gray tattoo artist with an Asian-inspired style. He does mostly animals, insects, and flowers decorated with patterns similar to what you would see on some Asian cultures’ traditional clothes, paintings, or furniture. This style makes his work very identifiable and distinct from many other tattoo artists, including those that also draw inspiration from various Asian cultures.
There you have it, nine amazing black and gray Korean tattoo artists based in Seoul. If you’re looking for inspiration or want to consult with an artist, click on those links and check out their bios for their contact information!
